Erschienen in:
04.09.2015 | Letter to the Editor
Ethnic differences in the serum levels of proBDNF, a precursor of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), in mood disorders
verfasst von:
Kenji Hashimoto
Erschienen in:
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
|
Ausgabe 3/2016
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Excerpt
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a major neurotrophic factor in the brain, plays an important role in the pathophysiology of mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar disorder (BD) [
1‐
3]. BDNF (mature BDNF) is a 13-kDa polypeptide, synthesized initially as a precursor protein, preproBDNF, in the endoplasmic reticulum. Following cleavage of its signal peptide, proBDNF (~32 kDa) is converted to mature BDNF by intracellular or extracellular proteases. It was first thought that only secreted, mature BDNF possessed biological activity, and that proBDNF, which localizes intracellularly, served as an inactive precursor. However, accumulating evidence demonstrates that both proBDNF and mature BDNF are active, eliciting opposing effects via the p75
NTR and TrkB receptors, respectively, and that both forms play a key role in several physiological functions [
2,
3]. …